Life for care worker who poured bleach in drinks

A CARE home worker who poisoned colleagues and residents by putting bleach in their drinks was given three life sentences yesterday.

Melissa Swift, 25, spiked the water and juice of vulnerable elderly residents as well as bottles in a communal staff fridge.

A court heard the former special constable had made death threats to other workers at the care home and searched ‘how to get away with murder’ online.

She also wrote a letter in her own blood to her stepsister Lulla Swift, 44, saying she would ‘cook her and eat her’.

In total, 30 staff and residents – including one in their 90s – were taken ill after drinks were tampered with at the Goldfield Court care home in West Bromwich in July 2014. Prosecutor Matthew Brook said Swift had written a diary entry a month earlier which read: ‘I want to hurt someone badly, or maybe even kill them. I will seek revenge.’

The following day, she wrote: ‘I have had more thoughts about killing people. If anyone gets in my way I don’t think I will be able to control myself.’

The anonymous letter to her stepsister was penned shortly afterwards. It read: ‘You will die because I will kill you ... Then I will cook you and eat you.’ A similar letter was sent to Swift’s colleague Charlotte Dixon, Birmingham Crown Court was told.

Mr Brook continued: ‘Patients began to report illness and vom- iting ... seven members of staff and 23 residents were taken ill.

‘Swift was placing eye drops and cleaning fluid containing bleach brought from home and placing it in water bottles and jugs.’ The court heard Swift, of West Bromwich, suffered from depression and a possible personality disorder.

She was arrested in August 2014 after confessing her crimes to a GP, who warned she would have to breach patient confidentiality.

By then, police had launched an investigation into the repeated bouts of illness at the care home.

Swift, who admitted three counts of attempted murder and two counts of threats to kill, was told she must serve at least eight years. She is currently in a secure mental health unit but may be moved to prison in the future.